The next day, the Emperor of the Great Wei once again called his nine sons to Wende Hall.

Except for the seventh prince Hongyin and the ninth prince Hongxuan, the other princes had roughly guessed the purpose of their father summoning them to Wende Hall this time.

That is the "prince accompanying prison" incident that was unprecedented in this year's examination.

Although the prince who was in charge did not have much power, it was just to supervise the entire process of the examination, it is undeniable that the examination is a national event that concerns the official system of the Great Wei Dynasty, and is also an excellent opportunity to reasonably contact officials of the Ministry of Personnel.

Therefore, all princes who are passionate about the throne are eagerly watching this opportunity, wanting to try to take this opportunity to win over some officials of the Ministry of Personnel, such as the eldest son "Crown Prince" Hongli, the second son "King Yong" Hongyu, the third son "King Xiang" Hongjing, the fourth son "King Yan" Hongjiang, and the fifth son "King Qing" Hongxin.

These princes originally thought that their father would decide to be the prince to accompany the prison after discussing with the ministers, so in the past few days, they have been in contact with the court officials who have the power to speak. After all, these princes are already married. As long as they are not openly clichés and are generally fond of their own affairs, the emperor of the Wei Dynasty always turns a blind eye.

After all, this is the "rule of the game" for princes of the Great Wei Dynasty to compete for the throne: within the scope of the rules, they are in good manners and use any means.

But no one expected that the Emperor of Wei finally decided to choose the prince who was in charge of prison in the form of "drawing lots", which made the five princes who had been traveling around and west and lag relationships these days felt very depressed.

However, they can also accept this situation, except for the crown prince Hongli who is temporarily the crown prince.

After all, as usual, the most likely possibility is that Prince Hongli is appointed as the prince to be a prisoner. Without special circumstances, the other four princes who have been crowned kings will hardly get this opportunity. Unless the Emperor of the Great Wei intends to establish another crown prince, one of the last four will be selected.

The only thing that cannot be understood is that the princes who heard that the candidates for the prison did not include the seventh prince Hongyin, the eighth prince Hongrun and the ninth prince Hongxuan, so why did they suddenly change their minds?

At this time, the Emperor of the Great Wei revealed the reason. Only then did they realize that it was the Eighth Prince Zhao Hongrun who was acting like a scoundrel and was entangled with their father, which made the Emperor of the Great Wei change his mind.

"Xiao Ba?"

It can be seen that all the princes were surprised, especially the sixth prince Zhao Hongzhao.

Because in their impression, their eighth brother is just a person who likes fun and never does anything serious, why did he suddenly change?

"It is said that Xiao Ba was imprisoned in the sect mansion a few days ago for some reason, and was detained for seven days before he was released... Could it be related to this matter?"

The second prince, "King Yong", Hongyu, looked at Zhao Hongrun in confusion, as if he was thinking.

A few days ago, Zhao Hongrun was framed by Luo Wenzhong, the doctor of the Ministry of Personnel. He stayed overnight in the incense pavilion of Miss Su in a water pavilion, and was finally taken away by the people of the Zong Mansion. The people of the Zong Mansion did not disclose this, nor did the Emperor of the Great Wei Dynasty. Therefore, the princes only knew that their eighth brother was imprisoned in the Zong Mansion for some reason, but they had no way of knowing this reason.

"From Xiao Ba's meaning, it seems that he is determined to win this time?"

The third son, "King Xiang", Hongjing, also looked at his eighth brother thoughtfully and thought to himself.

As one of the princes competing for the throne with Prince Hongli, King Yong and King Xiang Hongjing are the princes who are most likely to replace the prince, which is well known to the court and the country.

They didn't care much about their eighth brother's involvement in this incident. After all, Zhao Hongrun's chaotic poem in Chuigong Hall that day was a fool, and even heard that he had no intention of the throne and didn't care much like the sixth prince Zhao Hongzhao. Therefore, he could not be called the enemy of the four princes who had been crowned kings.

In contrast, Prince Hongli's expression was a little bad.

No wonder, after all, if Zhao Hongrun had not been involved in the attack, he would have the greatest chance of becoming a candidate for prison, but now, his chances are only more than 10%, which made the prince of the East Palace a little unhappy and stared at Zhao Hongrun with displeasure.

At this time, Zhao Hongrun's attention was focused on drawing lots, and he didn't care about his actions, which made the prince of the East Palace a little unhappy. However, King Yong and King Xiang Hongjing saw it clearly.

『…』

The two princes exchanged glances tacitly.

At this time, the Emperor of the Great Wei had written the names of the nine emperors on nine pieces of paper. At the same time, the eunuch Tong Xian folded the nine pieces of paper separately and spread them flat on the dragon table.

Seeing that the Emperor of Wei was about to reach out to grab one of the papers, the princes who were quite jealous of the prison seat suddenly became nervous and secretly prayed that they would be selected.

But at this moment, Zhao Hongrun suddenly spoke and interrupted the emperor: "Father, this is unfair."

The princes looked at Zhao Hongrun in surprise, surprised that the brother said such words, but then they thought that this brother had fought with their father for two rounds of struggle that the palace could talk about in relish. They were relieved.

Under the surprised gaze of the princes, the Emperor of the Great Wei was not angry at all when he heard this, but only showed an impatient expression.

"Why is it unfair again? Didn't you say you wanted to draw lots?"

Zhao Hongrun took a few steps towards the Long case and bowed and explained: "The emperor did not mean that it was unfair to draw lots. The emperor meant that it was unfair to draw lots like this... How did the emperor know that the father had secretly recorded the piece of paper from the emperor and deliberately refused to choose?"

"Is this... questioning the father?"

The princes' expressions changed slightly, thinking that this brother was so bold that he dared to question their father in this way.

However, to their surprise, the Emperor of the Great Wei was still not angry. He frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"

"I beg my father to put these nine pieces of paper in an invisible box, stir it up and then extract it... This is fair, right? "

"..." The emperor frowned and looked at Zhao Hongrun, and said impatiently: "Okay, in order to give up, I will follow what you said."

After saying that, the emperor glanced at the eunuch Tong Xian beside him.

Tong Xian agreed and bowed, leaving the Dragon Case.

He looked at the wooden shelves in Wende Hall, and saw a black and purple box on it, so he carefully picked it up and placed it on the dragon table.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Hongrun breathed a sigh of relief, because this box was made by the Ministry of Works yesterday.

He knew that the place where the Emperor of Wei summoned these princes should not be in the Chugong Hall where the three ministers of the Secretariat handled government affairs, but the Wende Hall, the place where the emperor rested.

Therefore, he asked the clan guard Mu Qing last night to sneak into Wende Hall to put the box secretly here while others were not paying attention.

For this reason, Zhao Hongrun spent hundreds of taels of silver to force and entrust the guards who were on duty outside Wende Hall, and ordered them not to disclose the matter.

Don't think this is an ordinary box. In fact, it is a wooden box with mechanisms.

Perhaps it looks inconspicuous at first glance, but in fact, this wooden box is exquisitely made. There is a secret lattice in it. It contains nine pieces of paper prepared by Zhao Hongrun in advance. It is also neatly folded. The only difference is that his name is written on these nine pieces of paper, Hongrun.

The reason why the word Zhao Hongrun is not written is that according to custom, no surnames are added when calling members of the royal family.

At this time, Tong Xian had put the nine pieces of paper into the wooden box and covered the lid. Then he held the wooden box and shook it gently for a few times.

"Satisfied?" asked the emperor.

Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly, bowed and said, "Can you let the emperor take it?"

The emperor glanced at Zhao Hongrun with an irrational look and raised his hand to make a call.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun walked up to him.

To be honest, he was really worried that his father would not allow him to suck it. After all, the wood chips contained eighteen pieces of paper at this moment. Nine pieces were written by the emperor, and the other nine pieces were written by Zhao Hongrun’s imitation of the emperor’s notes. To change the positions of both, one had to press a hidden mechanism at the level of the wooden box.

In front of everyone, Zhao Hongrun pretended to hold the wooden box and shook it again, as if he was messing with the paper inside. In fact, he just replaced the nine pieces of paper from the emperor to follow the mechanism.

After finishing the preparations, Zhao Hongrun placed the wooden box on the table, opened the lid, reached out to penetrate the box, and took out one.

"Huh? It seems that God is standing on the side of the emperor. Tsk, I'm so lucky."

When you spread the paper, the words "Hongrun" are clearly written on the paper.

"Is this a coincidence?"

The princes looked at each other and thought to themselves that if they had known this, I would have gone up and sucked.

But several of them were more careful and had already begun to doubt the authenticity of the lot to draw this time, but because the wooden box was taken casually in Wende Hall, they couldn't question anything rashly.

However, although they didn't say anything, the emperor showed a strange smile on his face: "Get another one."

Suddenly, Zhao Hongrun's smile became a little unnatural.

"What's wrong? Just draw another one." Looking at Zhao Hongrun, the emperor said lightly: "Are you afraid of drawing another piece of paper with your name written on it?"

"..." Zhao Hongrun said embarrassedly: "What did the father say? This paper was written by the father. How could it be all the names of the emperor?"

"Ha! That's not necessarily." The emperor smiled faintly and reached into the wooden box: "Since you don't want to draw, just think I'm here to draw another one for you."

As he said that, the emperor took out another piece of paper from the wooden box and spread it out. Sure enough, the words "Hongrun" were written on it.

The prince suddenly realized: It turned out that this kid cheated!

After looking at Zhao Hongrun, who was stern and silent, the emperor simply took out all the papers in the wooden box and spread them out one by one. Sure enough, Zhao Hongrun's name was written on them.

"I can't tell, you have some attainments to imitate my handwriting... How long have you learned it?" the emperor said sarcastically.

Seeing that the trick was exposed, Zhao Hongrun simply let it go, shrugged and said, "I still need to learn this? The Father's word is not very good, so I can see it for a few glances."

"This bad guy, I'm still angry when the matter is about to come!"

The emperor breathed a viciously.

"Get lots again!"

『PS: This book has been signed by A and will be released by the first. I hope that readers of this book can take a minute to vote for this book at the Qidian point. I am very grateful.
Chapter completed!